‘Backrooms 2’ Officially Confirmed with Kane Parsons Returning as Director

A24’s bold investment in emerging filmmakers has proven successful time and again, but few ventures have been as rewarding as their decision to entrust a feature film to 19-year-old YouTuber Kane Parsons. What began as a viral found-footage horror series has transformed into one of the year’s most unexpected box office successes, prompting the studio to swiftly capitalize on this momentum.

The ‘Backrooms’ series kicked off in January 2022 when Parsons began sharing analog horror shorts inspired by the internet’s Backrooms creepypasta on his YouTube channel. This web series eventually caught the attention of A24, leading to a feature adaptation that debuted in theaters in May 2026, featuring stars like Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve, and Mark Duplass.

The gamble paid off tremendously. ‘Backrooms’ grossed $394 million worldwide against a production budget of less than $10 million, making Parsons the youngest director ever to have a film debut at number one in both the domestic and global box office. Now, that success is set to continue with a second installment.

Kane Parsons has officially signed on to direct ‘Backrooms 2’ for A24, with a formal announcement from the studio expected soon. The sequel will pick up where the first film left off, delving deeper into the franchise’s expansive mythology beyond its iconic yellow-walled liminal spaces, particularly exploring the enigmatic organization known as Async introduced in the original.

Parsons has been vocal about his plans for the franchise’s future for some time. He indicated that expanding ‘Backrooms’ into multiple films was always part of his vision, describing the theatrical release as just the beginning of a larger narrative he has been crafting online since 2022, as he mentioned in an interview with SuperHeroHype.

This long-term vision aligns with Parsons’ earlier comments this year. In a conversation with Variety in May, he confirmed that sequels were always more than just a possibility for the franchise, noting that he had taken the original YouTube series as far as he could before transitioning to feature filmmaking.

Behind the scenes, ‘Longlegs’ director Osgood Perkins has played a crucial mentorship role throughout Parsons’ journey from YouTube creator to feature director, assisting in the development of the original film’s screenplay and guiding him through his first full production. Perkins, who produced the original ‘Backrooms’, is reportedly continuing to collaborate with Parsons on future projects.

The first film’s positive critical reception further solidified the case for a sequel. ‘Backrooms’ currently boasts an 87 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics lauding Parsons’ skill in blending atmospheric tension with genuine narrative intrigue, drawing comparisons to works like ‘The Blair Witch Project’, ‘Severance’, and even the unique sensibilities of David Lynch.

Parsons was reportedly on the lookout for a screenwriter to help shape the sequel’s narrative even before the official director announcement, indicating that the follow-up is still in its early development stages. No release date or further plot details have been disclosed at this time.

With Parsons firmly at the helm of the franchise he created as a teenager, ‘Backrooms 2’ stands out as one of the more unique sequel stories in recent memory, a horror hit built entirely on the trust in a young creator’s original vision rather than passing it off to someone else. Given the success of that trust the first time around, A24 clearly remains committed to this direction.

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